Clumsy

I burnt some toast bad enough to set off the smoke alarm, so I opened a window and turned on the fan and the alarm stopped beeping. Later, I dropped half my grilled cheese. I still haven't worked out how to turn off the fan without turning out the light.

*sigh*


Today's earrings: octopi, coins

Bedtime reading: My Heart Leaps Up, R.A. Lafferty

Afternoon at the museum

Happy news: the poodles are back.


Today's earrings: spiders, coins

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

I reject your false dichotomy

I am, at present, a straphanger paper pusher.


Today's earrings: bees, coins

Bedtime reading: One Man Show, Michael Innes

Uncle John's Band

It's the same story the crow told me;
It's the only one he knows.
Like the morning sun you come and like the wind you go.
Ain't no time to hate, barely time to wait,
Woh - oh, what I want to know, where does the time go?

I live in a silver mine and I call it Beggar's Tomb;
I got me a violin and I beg you call the tune
Anybody's choice, I can hear your voice.
Woh - oh, what I want to know, how does the song go?

Come hear the Uncle John's Band by the riverside
Got some things to talk about, here beside the risin' tide
Come hear Uncle John's Band playing to the tide,
Come on along, or go alone,
He's come to take his children home.
Woh - oh, what I want to know, how does the song go?

Come hear Uncle John's Band by the riverside,
Got some things to talk about here beside the risin' tide.
Come hear Uncle John's Band playing to the tide, come on
Along or go alone, he's come to take his children home.

- - Robert Hunter

Today's earrings: turtles, coins

Bedtime reading: Reflex, Dick francis

I still have a job

The layoffs are all in another division. It'll be a while before the layoffs get to us - seems my business unit was the only one in the corporation to make its numbers this quarter.


Today's earrings: bees, coins

Bedftime reading: The Rebel Angels, Robertson Davies

Final Menu for Pi Day

- - Hungry Lemming

Today's earrings: turtles, coins

Bedtime reading: Fool, Christopher Moore

At the market

I wanted some Golden Delicious, but an old guy had his cart parked in front of them. I went and found myself a nice pepper. Came back to find him still standing there. I started looking over apples while edging his cart out of my way all subtle-like, and he pulled his cart back a few inches. About then I realized that he was still standing there because he was pulling bunches of plastic bags off the spinner and squirreling them away.

He said something about the price of apples being too high. I was in a good mood, so I said something about the Apple Pickers' Union doing well for themselves. "Too well," he snarled back. Uh-huh. I chose a pair of apples while he muttered about prices being too high, and as I walked away I heard him say something about how I don't know what a Depression is like.

I was all the way around to the cheese aisle (still humming Woody Guthrie) when it occurred to me that he probably didn't know what a Depression was like, either. That man didn't look a day over 70.


Today's earrings: frogs, coins

Bedtime reading: Lafferty in Orbit, R.A. Lafferty

I had no idea

Look familiar? It seems to be a common subject in skater film.
(Which you should not watch if you don't want to see people wipe out onto the concrete below. Skaters are nuts.)


Today's earrings: tree frogs, coins

Bedtime reading: Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman

Today's big achievement

I bought cheese.


Today's earrings: flowers, coins

Bedtime reading: Pyramids, Terry Pratchett

Smart Money

Today's earrings: owls, coins

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell

Meeting of the Planning Committee

...delayed slightly, d/t my failure to set my alarm. We finally convened at noon at the Dancing Square. It was an extremely productive meeting. The Lead Designer produced two working plans (one with a big wide stretch of window, one with a big wide stretch of counter) to be presented to the prospective contractor for costing. The meeting broke up around two.

On the way home, I said, "It's a really nice day. We should go look at the ocean." So we did.

There were kites.



Today's earrings: squirrels, coins

Bedtime reading: Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Plentitude

I just now discovered that "plentitude" means "a full supply," while "plenitude" means "the quality or state of being full." And "plenitude" is a word. Who knew?


Today's earrings: frogs, coins

Bedtime reading: The Daffodil Affair, Michael Innes

Prosperity

Main Entry:	prosperity
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	good fortune
Synonyms:	abundance, accomplishment, advantage, affluence, arrival, benefit, boom, boomlet, clover, do, ease*, easy street*, exorbitance, expansion, flying colors*, fortune, go, good, good times, gravy train*, growth, increase, inflation, interest, luxury, opulence, plenteousness, plenty, prosperousness, riches, success, successfulness, thriving, velvet, victory, wealth, welfare, well-being
Antonyms:	failure, hardship
Source:	Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved. * = informal or slang

Today's earrings: flowers, coins

Bedtime reading: Owl's Well That Ends Well, Donna Andrews

It was foggy this morning

On my way to the bus stop this morning I heard yelling. Crossing the street, I saw that a guy was yelling at a little old lady with a cane. (I see her with her husband(?) at that stop pretty often. I don't think they speak any English.) She was trying to pretend the yelly guy wasn't there, her husband was trying to shoo him off, and the guy kept yelling that she was in his way, he was trying to get somewhere, don't get in his way. Then he knocked her down.

He just pushed her over and walked away.

I didn't know what to do. What I did was go over to her and ask if she was ok, which didn't help much. I stayed with her while her husband tried to round up some help from the dry cleaner's shop, but they were too late to do anything besides commiserate. I helped her husband get her back on her feet, and one of the guys from the dry cleaner walked them home.

The bus came, and I went off to see the Dancing Square.

It's an adorable house. Hardwood floors through most of it, and lots of cute period detail. I like the fireplace even better now that I've seen it. (I'm the only one.) I have never seen so many kluges in 3-d format. SO many moving parts - a swing-out spice rack, freestanding shelves in every cabinet, drawers bolted to the bottom of all the flat surfaces... I suspect they were trying to echo the swinging cauldron in the fireplace and the flappy mirror wings in the bathroom. (As with the fireplace, the only one who loves the flappy mirror wings is me.)

Carpets were cast aside. Rooms were redesigned. Color schemes were chosen. Lunch was had. Then we all went home to pack.



A little old lady. With a cane, fercrissake.


Today's earrings: frogs, coins

Bedtime reading: Through Elegant Eyes, R.A. Lafferty

Critical Mass

a.k.a. The Parade of Entitlement, rolled up Sutter Street this evening just after I'd boarded the bus. I wanted to go home. They wanted to bang on the side of the bus and yell "Wooooooo!" while idling by. After ten minutes of waiting for the self-congratulatory bicyclists to allow the bus to leave the curb, I gave up, walked up to California, and caught the cable car.

I'd have more respect for them if their agenda amounted to more than, "Let's block traffic one night a month! It's really fun! We're morally superior! Wooooooo!" But it doesn't. I loathe all the Unique Snowflakes out there tonight, who imagine that the enjoyment they take in frustrating others is proof of their betterness.


Today's earrings: monkeys, coins

Bedtime reading: Small Gods, Terry Pratchett

Cash & carry

Compare & contrast, concerning the import of shoes:
US: http://hotdocs.usitc.gov/docs/tata/hts/bychapter/0701C64.pdf
Canada: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/general/publications/tariff2007/01-99/ch64ne.pdf
Australia: http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/resources/tariff/chapter64goods_a.pdf
Ireland: http://www.revenue.ie/pdf/04_12_CETI_06.pdf


Today's earrings: camels, coins

Bedtime reading: "The Mule," Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov

My Treasures

THESE nuts, that I keep in the back of the nest
Where all my lead soldiers are lying at rest,
Were gathered in autumn by nursie and me
In a wood with a well by the side of the sea.

This whistle we made (and how clearly it sounds!
By the side of a field at the end of the grounds.
Of a branch of a plane, with a knife of my own,
It was nursie who made it, and nursie alone!

The stone, with the white and the yellow and gray,
We discovered I cannot tell how far away;
And I carried it back although weary and cold,
For though father denies it, I’m sure it is gold.

But of all my treasures the last is the king.
For there’s very few children possess such a thing;
And that is a chisel, both handle and blade,
Which a man who was really a carpenter made.
- - Robert Louis Stevenson


Today's earrings: diamonds, coins

Bedtime reading: King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard